The Holiday Escapes Collection. Sandra Marton

he looked strained, having lost colour while his spectacular strong bone structure had set rigid below his bronzed skin. ‘We were strangers with a legal agreement, Ash,’ she reminded him painfully. ‘We’ve met the terms, put on the show and now surely we can return to being ourselves again behind closed doors at least?’

      ‘Is that what you want?’ he pressed curtly, lean brown hands closing into fists by his side. ‘Don’t you think this is a decision best shelved for a less traumatic day?’

      Tabby lifted her chin, her heart squeezing tight inside her chest, pain like a sharp little arrow twisting inside her because, of course, it was not what she wanted. She wanted him; she was in love with him but she had to protect herself, had to force herself to accept that what they had shared was only a pretence. ‘No.’

      ‘You want to go back to where we started out?’ Acheron demanded starkly.

      Tabby dropped her shoulders, her eyes veiling. ‘No, I just want us to be honest and not faking anything.’

      Acheron breathed in very slow and deep, dark golden eyes glittering like fireworks below the shield of his luxuriant black lashes. ‘I haven’t been faking anything...’

      Tabby’s dazed mind ran over all the romancing, the sexing, the hand-holding, the fun, and she blinked in bemusement. ‘But of course you were faking.’

      ‘It may have started out that way, but it ended up real, yineka mou.’ Acheron surveyed her steadily but she knew he was putting up a front because he was really, really tense.

      ‘How...real?’ Tabby questioned, her heart thumping like mad.

      Acheron lifted his arms and spread his hands in an oddly defenceless gesture. ‘I fell in love with you...’

      Tabby almost fell over in shock, her brain refusing to accept that he could have said that he loved her. ‘I don’t believe you. You’re just scared that I’m about to walk out on our marriage agreement and you’ll lose your company—but you don’t need to be scared of that happening because I wouldn’t do that to you. I’m still as determined to adopt Amber as I ever was, so I couldn’t do that even if I wanted to,’ she pointed out honestly.

      ‘When I try to say, “I love you” for the first time in my life to a woman, you could at least listen to what I’m saying and stop talking a lot of rubbish!’ Acheron shot back at her with scorching effect.

      Tabby was struck dumb by that little speech. He was serious? He wasn’t joking, faking, trying to manipulate her in some nefarious way? She stared back at him fixedly.

      ‘And it was bloody hard to say too!’ Acheron added in angry complaint at her response.

      ‘I’m in shock,’ Tabby mumbled shakily. ‘I didn’t think you had any feelings for me.’

      ‘I tried very hard not to. I fought it every step of the way,’ Acheron admitted ruefully. ‘But in the end you got to me and you got to me so hard I ran away from it.’

      ‘Ran away?’ Tabby almost whispered in growing disbelief.

      ‘I was feeling strange and that’s why I took off on business...to give myself a little breathing space,’ Acheron qualified tautly. ‘But the minute I got away I realised I only wanted to come back and be with you.’

      Tabby blinked slowly, struggling to react to that explanation when all her crazy head was full of was a single statement: that he loved her. He loves me. She tasted the idea, savoured it, very nearly careened across the terrace and flattened him to the tiles in gratitude, but mercifully retained enough restraint to stay where she was. ‘You got cold feet, didn’t you?’ she guessed.

      Acheron nodded. ‘It was a little overwhelming when I realised what was wrong with me.’

      Tabby moved closer. ‘No, it wasn’t anything wrong with you. It was a good thing, a wonderful thing...you love me. I love you.’

      ‘If you feel the same way I do, why the hell are you putting me through this torture?’ Acheron demanded rawly.

      Tabby almost laughed, a sense of intoxication gripping her as she searched his darkly handsome features and the masculine bewilderment etched there. ‘Talking about love is torture?’

      Acheron rested his arms down on her slim shoulders and breathed, ‘I thought once I said it, that would be that, but I was scared you wouldn’t feel the same way and that you wanted it all to be fake.’

      Tabby closed her arms round him and snuggled close. ‘No, real is much better than fake. So, does this mean we’re really and truly married?’

      ‘Absolutely,’ Acheron confirmed, and bent to lift her up into his arms. ‘It also means we’re going to be adoptive parents together because I sort of developed a fondness for Amber as well. Seems this love business is contagious...’

      ‘Wow...’ Tabby framed as he carried her upstairs to their bedroom and Teresa, with the baby in her arms, retreated back into the nursery with a warm smile. ‘But how did it happen?’

      Acheron arranged her on the bed with the care of a man setting up an art installation and stared down at her for what felt like ages. ‘I think it started when I realised I was with a woman who was willing to sacrifice her home and her business to look after her sick best friend and child. I respect that level of loyalty and unselfishness. I respect what you were willing to do to retain custody of Amber even though I was pretty rough and crude about everything at the time. You stuck it out...you stood up to me...’

      ‘And out of that came love?’ Tabby whispered in shock.

      ‘Out of those experiences came a woman I couldn’t live without,’ traded Acheron with a tender look in his lustrous dark eyes that she had never seen before. ‘Thee mou...if you had still wanted the fake marriage and the divorce I don’t know what I would’ve done.’

      ‘I don’t want a divorce...I don’t ever want to let go of you,’ Tabby confided against his shirtfront.

      ‘That desire is just about to come in very handy, agape mou,’ Acheron murmured thickly, claiming her ripe mouth with his own, sending a thrill of heat and anticipation travelling through her relaxed body.

      About an hour later, Acheron leapt naked out of bed to retrieve his trousers and dig into a pocket to produce a jewellers’ box, which he pressed into her hand. ‘I know it’s not your birthday for another twenty-four hours but this is burning a hole in my pocket,’ he admitted ruefully.

      Tabby opened the box to find an unusual ring in the shape of a rose with a ruby at the centre.

      ‘What do you think?’ Acheron demanded anxiously. ‘I wanted you to know that it was made in the image of your tattoo because it will always remind me what made you the special woman you are.’

      ‘It’s...gorgeous!’ Tabby carolled as he removed his late mother’s engagement ring from her wedding finger and replaced it with the new ring. The diamonds on the rose petals caught the sunlight and cast a rainbow of little sparkling reflections across the white bedding. ‘But why on earth do you think I am so special when I’m so ordinary?’

      ‘You’re special because in spite of all the bad things that happened to you, you still have an open heart and a loving spirit. You love Amber, you love me—’

      ‘So much,’ Tabby emphasised feelingly as she smiled up at him. ‘Although you might feel you love me a little less when you see what I spent on my credit card.’

      ‘Never,’ Acheron contradicted. ‘You’re the least extravagant person I know.’

      ‘You might change your mind on that score,’ she warned him, hoping he at least appreciated the gift of the pen on his birthday in three days’ time.

      ‘I love you,’ he breathed softly, his attention locked on her smiling face.

      He had fallen in love with her, he had genuinely fallen in love with her, Tabby savoured finally, and she allowed